


You're Wrong

by nothingbutthesilence



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Also defending Oliver because people are annoying me this season, F/M, Kinda, Third Person POV, season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 06:22:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5037208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingbutthesilence/pseuds/nothingbutthesilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took about a month for Lance to notice. In his defence, he was too busy trying to hold his grudge against Queen to notice much else. Like how Ms Smoak, a woman he knew was smart, was now apparently with Queen.<br/>This was a thing now?</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Olicity feels are killing me this season! I couldn't not write about it! I love third person POVs of their relationship and this started out as that. Though the way everyone's been treating Oliver has been annoying me so it sort of became a rambling defence of him? Anyway, enjoy!

It took about a month for Lance to notice. In his defence, he was too busy trying to hold his grudge against Queen to notice much else. Like how Ms Smoak, a woman he knew was smart, was now apparently with Queen.

  
This was a thing now?

  
Lance wasn’t sure. Honestly, it made sense. They had left Starling, Star, City together months ago. And they both came back together. And they had always seemed…close.

But with everything that had gone on in the past few months, Lance hadn’t even connected the dots. He’d been so happy that Queen had left town and the Arrow was seemingly not going to be issue any more that he hadn’t noticed that she’d left with him. And when he realised she too wasn’t in town, well, he didn’t think too much about it. His concern was more on the remaining vigilantes- seemingly his daughter, his law-loving Laurel, was taking on her sister’s mantle and now there was some new helmet-clad trouble-maker and apparently the red one was back, though definitely not Harper anymore. It’s not as if Ms Smoak was someone he thought about a lot. Queen was gone- he was happy. That’s all that mattered to him.

  
Then, all of a sudden, he was back. Not only was he back, but he had apparently accepted Lance’s knowledge of his extra-curricular activities. And he was different somehow. He insisted he was trying things differently. Something Lance remembers him saying a few years ago, back when he first became the Arrow, when he insisted he wasn’t going to kill anymore. Yeah, Lance had fell for that before, even worked with him, and then what? He had gone and killed the Count. And why? What was it for? He’d faced criminals on par, worse even, than him and they were still alive. Lance wasn’t going to fall for this again.

  
But it wasn’t just this. He was apparently trying some new way of crime fighting, sure, as much as Lance didn’t believe him. But, there was something about him. His voice was different. His posture, his face, his mannerisms. Everything. Not obviously, but enough that Lance could notice. He seemed… _lighter_ somehow. Almost _happy_. But Lance knew that wasn’t possible. Since coming back from the island, happiness wasn’t something Lance had seen on either Queen or his hooded alter-ego. And he understood. You don’t become a murderous, justice-seeking mad man and still dream of a happy life, after all.

  
And Lance still believed this. Knew that he must be mistaken, there’s no way Queen would be happy. He wasn’t proven wrong for another few months.

  
It was the Annual Star(ling) City Police Department Fundraiser. An event Lance hated. It involved wearing a stuffy suit, schmoozing with rich folk and avoiding the servers with their endless supply of champagne. Sitting at the bar, water in hand, Lance sighed. He didn’t think it could get worse until he spotted Queen making his way to the bar.

  
“Captain Lance,” Queen nodded before ordering two glasses of wine from the bartender. Lance nodded in return, his patented ‘I-hate-Oliver-Queen’ glare in place. Queen simply looked at him and sighed, placing the wine glasses the bartender passed him onto the bar and turning fully to face Lance. The latter steeled himself for whatever conversation was about to come.

  
“Look, I know that you don’t approve of me,” Queen paused briefly as Lance scoffed, “or of the whole idea of vigilantes in the first place. But, I just want you to know that we really do want to help. All I’ve ever wanted to do was help this city.”

  
“Yeah, and look what it’s become thanks to you.” The retort came out before Lance could stop it and he noticed the guilt in Queen’s downcast eyes as he nodded slightly.

  
“Maybe you’re right. But, regardless, it needs help. It needs saving. And the police can’t do it alone. You know that. And you may not like me, and you have every reason not to, but at least understand that I’m, _we’re_ , going to do everything we can to save this city with or without your approval. But it would be a better use of resources if you focused on catching the bad guys and not the people on your side.”

  
Lance looked at Queen, considering his words. While the police were no longer on a vigilante man-hunt, it was true that they tended to not really act either way when the vigilantes were at a crime scene, neither taking down the criminals or the masks. If you asked Lance, and if he didn’t know his daughter was one of them, he would insist the police go after both. But he knew that most people had long since abandoned that opinion, and he knew he didn't want to end up arresting his own daughter. But _Queen_? A part of him would happily take him down now, if he had any evidence. He’d lied about Sara, he’d killed, he’d tortured, he’d destroyed this city. And now he wants to save it? Lance wasn’t happy. Yes, the city needed saving. But, what Queen couldn’t, or maybe refused to, see was that it was the likes of him it needed saving from.

 

A soft “ _Oliver_ ” drew Lance out of his thoughts and he noticed Ms Smoak making her way towards the bar, a small smile on her face as she looked at Queen.

  
“I’m never asking you to get me a drink again. You’ve been ages!” she teased, sipping from one of the wine glasses Queen left on the bar, “I bet that was your motive all along. Take so long that I never ask you to do anything for me again!” At this, she laughed, and Queen rolled his eyes good-naturedly, a grin taking over his face. Her hand went up to latch onto his arm, and the pair shared a smile and a knowing look.

This was when it all became clear to Lance. This _was_ a thing now. And he was not happy about it one bit.

“Seriously, Ms. Smoak? _Seriously_?” he laughed, incredulously, gesturing between the couple. “Surely you have more sense than _this_?”

At his words, the pair visibly stiffened, and anger flared in Ms Smoak’s eyes as she shook her head slightly in answer to Queen’s quiet “ _Felicity_ ”.

“More sense than _what_ , exactly, Captain?” The look in her eyes dared Lance to retaliate but as he opened his mouth, she interrupted. “No, I’m sick of this. I’m so sick and tired of everyone being so quick to judge Oliver, judge _us_ , since we came back. And I can’t just stand by and watch anymore. It’s driving me insane.

“You think that Oliver ruined this city. That he’s the reason for all the disaster and craziness that’s gone on the past few years. You think he’s a murderer, a villain. But you’re wrong. And I’m sure deep down you realise that your anger’s misplaced. You’re not really angry at him.” At this, she stopped and sighed. Visibly steeling herself, she glared at Lance before continuing. “But, God, this has to stop. He didn’t ‘bring the darkness back with him’, it was already here! You think that he’s the reason for everything, but you forget that Malcolm Merlyn was already planning on destroying the Glades before Oliver even returned. Without him, a lot more people would have died then. None of this is Oliver’s fault. It’s not his fault that the city’s a mess, just like it’s not his fault that Sara died-“

“You have no right- Don’t you _dare_ bring my daughter into this-“

“But that’s why you’re really mad, isn’t it? You’re angry because Sara died and Oliver never told you. But he’s not the reason she died. He didn’t kill her. He didn’t put her in that position. The island, the League of Assassins, her death- none of it is his fault. You’ve spent so long blaming Oliver for everything that happened with Sara that you’ve not only forgotten that your daughter was her own person, a strong woman, and was capable of making her own decisions, but also that _Merlyn_ sabotaged the boat. If it wasn’t for him, they’d have made it to China and none of this would have happened. She wouldn’t have joined the League. And she’d never have been killed. I mean, the whole hating-Oliver thing _may_ have happened, ‘cause he did still cheat on one of your daughters with the other and that would have been awkward without the whole shipwreck thing and-“

“ _Felicity_.”

“Right, yeah.” She smiled over at Queen before shifting her stare back to Lance, “You can’t blame him for this. You had a right to be angry with him, but that’s long gone now. You refuse to accept that the Green Arrow is good because you hate Oliver and it’s easy to hate both of them. But the Green Arrow saves lives, saves this city every night. And, every night, Oliver puts on that hood and risks his life to keep people like you, people who could care less about him, safe because that’s what he does. And he asks for nothing in return. But it’s _me_ who has to listen to gunfire over comms and not know if he’s going to come home or not. So, _I’m_ asking for a little gratitude in return. Just stop hating him for things out of his control. Sara died. And can’t imagine how hard it is for you. But Oliver didn’t kill her. He singlehandedly dug up her empty coffin so we could give her a real send-off. And he’s not the reason you didn’t know. If you want to be angry about that- take it up with Laurel. That’s not our concern. _Our_ concern is that we are trying to help and you’re hindering that. You’re anger is stopping us from saving this city. And you’re so blinded by it that you don’t even notice! You can’t even see that you’re in the wrong.” Her voice now raised, her eyes drifted towards Queen, visibly softened, and moved back towards Lance.

“Just, think about it, yeah?” And with that, wine glass in one hand and Queen in the other, she left.

And as he watched the two of them mingling with the crowd, Lance did think about it. But mostly he thought about Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak. And how, despite everything, those two had apparently worked it all out. And despite his anger, misplaced or not, a part of him was happy for them.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like, please comment.


End file.
